Self-Service Update Benefits Students

By Ashley Smith

Last month a new program called Clean Address was added to the self-service banner that allows students to update their contact information online.

“Students now have the ability to change their address themselves through the MyYSU portal,” Jeanne Herman, the university registrar, said. “Prior to the installation of Clean Address, students needed to come to the Student One Stop to change their address. This feature allows students to be able to update an address at their convenience. The MyYSU portal is available 24/7.”

Tim Kovaleski, a systems analyst and key implementer for this project, said that Clean Address serves as a means of not only updating addresses, but also verifying them.

“[Clean Address is] an integrated address verification solution that corrects and standardizes addresses in our Banner system,” he said. “Any time an address is entered or modified, the software runs through a USPS database and verifies the address as well as formats it to the USPS data standards.”

Herman said students who are interested in utilizing this new feature need to follow the following steps.

“Once a student logs into the MyYSU portal they can click on Banner Self Service. From there they can click on the personal information tab,” Herman said. “There will be an option called ‘Update Addresses and Phones.’ This new feature allows students to update both addresses and phone numbers.”

This implementation allows for a “two-fold” benefit for students.

“Students can now change their address within self-service banner,” Kovaleski said. “This is two-fold: first it lets the student keep their information up to date, and­ — ­since they can make the changes — students no longer need to come to campus to fill out a form.”

Herman echoed Kovaleski’s statement.

“Our goal was always to allow students to be able to change their addresses and phone number themselves through the MyYSU portal. The Clean Address software allows us to open this service up to the students, faculty and staff,” she said.

Previously students would have to fill out a paper form and submit it to the second floor of Meshel. The changes would then be added or edited in the system.

“This was an add-on to Banner, there really wasn’t an ‘old system.’ We have always had the ability to allow address changes in Self Service, but we did not want to activate that feature until we had this piece of software which would keep the data standards in place,” Kovaleski said.

In order to ensure that the system was ideal before activating it, a variety of staff members collaborated on the initiative.

“Our implementation team consisted of staff from the Computer Center, Human Resources, Office of the Registrar, and Alumni and Events. Prior to going live with this feature, all related areas tested the product extensively to make sure that we would have a smooth implementation,” Herman said.